26343: Is wudoo’ broken by taking off one's socks?

If a person does wudoo’ and wipes over his socks, then during the period in which wiping over the socks is allowed he takes off his socks before he prays, should he pray and is his prayer valid, or is his wudoo’ broken by taking off his socks?

Praise be to Allaah, and blessings and peace be upon the
Messenger of Allaah.

If he takes off his leather slippers
(khufoof) or socks after wiping over them that does not invalidate his
wudoo’, according to the correct scholarly view, because when a person wipes
over his socks, he has completed his wudoo’ according to what is implied by
the shar’i evidence. So if he takes them off, this wudoo’ is still valid
according to the shar’i evidence and cannot be broken except by something
for which there is shar’i evidence. There is no evidence to indicate that
taking off leather slippers or socks that have been wiped invalidates
wudoo’. On this basis, then, his wudoo’ remains valid. This was the view
favoured by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah and a group of the scholars. But if
he puts his socks back on after that and breaks his wudoo’, then he wants to
wipe over them again, that is not allowed, because he has to put the socks
on after doing wudoo’ in which he washed his feet, according to what was
stated by the scholars. And Allaah knows best.